Pre-Departure Global Health Ethics Training for Medical Volunteers: One Strategy

Abstract

Short-term global health volunteerism is on the rise, as students and health care professionals seek short-duration volunteer experiences in low income settings. Given the potential for ethical transgressions in such situations, pre-departure ethics training is essential. We have developed a very short ethics training regimen with four dimensions: (1) an overview of the history and major challenges with respect to global health and ethics; (2) a simplified global health ethics framework for the non-specialist; (3) examples of ethical crises experienced in the field; (4) a proposed simple strategy for addressing new crises as they arise. We feel our training model can be modified and replicated for other groups in need of basic and brief predeparture ethics training.